Over Troubled Waters
by littleblackcurlyhair
Summary: 16 year old Joey Tribbiani is walking home late at night when he has an encounter with a young homeless girl in need of help. He decides to help her, without realizing that he is meeting someone who will become a life -long best friend. Shortish, Phoey one-shot. K for language. Please review!


_A/N: So, this was an idea that I had for another fic I am currently writing about Phoebe's background, but I decided not to use it, and turned it into this one shot instead. This takes place right after Phoebe's roommate, (the albino guy she lives with.) kills himself. Please read and review, I would appreciate it so much :) Also, I don't own Friends, etc. The title of this fic comes from a Simon and Garfunkle song that is surprisingly quite fitting with this story. Enjoy! :)_

Joey was beginning to regret his decision to cross the Brooklyn Bridge at this time of night. The rain had stopped, for the most part, but then came the wind. He runs his hand through his jet black hair, damp from the rain, and pushed it off of his face, and then zips up his red and white leather sports jacket to try and stay warm. As soon as he got to the other side, he could get on the subway train and go home.

His high school football team was having a bash at someone's house. And because Joey knew what a great opportunity parties were to score with chicks, he didn't hesitate to go. He had only joined the football team, because everyone knew that jocks got all the chicks in school. He liked sports, okay, but what he really wanted to do was act. He just wouldn't be caught dead hanging around with the drama crowd. The whole football thing seemed to be working out well for him, so far. At least it was before tonight. Their team won the game against a Brooklyn high school team, and had proceeded to the nearest empty house of a teammate, with a beer keg to celebrate. Katie Kirkland: The head cheerleader of the cheer-leading squad, and possibly one of the hottest girls at Joey's school had started to talk to him. And Joey started laying on his usually successful charm, flirting it up when her, when some random girl walked up to him and slapped him across the face. It took Joey a few minutes after for him to vaguely remember her from another party he had attended not long ago. Apparently, he may have made out with her, but he didn't remember that, or much of anything from that night, for that matter. The girl yelled at him and cussed him out in front of everyone. Katie ended up walking off with some other guy on his team, looking less than impressed. After that, Joey decided to leave. But girl's words were still running through his mind.

"I thought you were different, Joey Tribbiani! I thought you were a decent guy! But you don't care about anyone but yourself! You're just a selfish pig, like every other guy at this school!"

That really bothered him more than the slap in the face had. Who was she to say he wasn't a decent guy? He knew that he was. When he wanted to be, anyways. And worst of all Katie Kirkland thought it was true. Joey's thoughts were interrupted when he came across something in his path that he didn't make out in the dark, at first, and nearly tripped over it. Catching his balance, Joey put his hands on the large, odd shaped object and realized it was a guitar case. He looked around him, but he didn't see anyone nearby. It was so weird that someone had just randomly left it there on the walking path. While he was trying to decide what he should do with it, he heard a faint, disturbing sound. To him it sounded like a whimper. Startled, he let go of the case, and stared at it when it crashed to the ground. Was there something alive inside of it? Maybe he should just leave it be. He was about to walk away, when he heard it again, louder. It was definitely someone crying. He didn't know where it was coming from, because there was no one within earshot of him. He checked behind him again, and saw something he had walked right past without noticing. Just a few feet above ground level was a person, standing on the hand rail. Joey's heart rate quickened at the sight of them, when he realized what was happening.

He could not just walk away from them. He needed to do something. Slowly, he walks closer to the person, staring up at them. He can tell from the sound of her voice, as she sobs, that she is female. Other than that, he would have never known just by looking at the back of her, with her over-sized, mismatched clothes. Her green army jacket was covered in rips and tears. Her long blonde hair was tied back in a messy braid over her shoulder, and the loose strands were blowing in all directions from the wind. She's has one hand on a lamp post. It's the only thing keeping her up. He needed to be sure not to startle her.

"Uhm...excuse me. Miss?"

Her head snaps around, suddenly at the sound of his voice and looks at him. Her pale green eyes are red from tears.

"Leave me alone!" she says, her voice sounding frantic. "Stay back!"

Joey comes even closer. He leans over the rail to get a better look at her, while considering his options. She looks much younger than he was expecting. In fact, she couldn't be much older than he is. And Joey also can't help but notice that she's quite attractive, despite her disheveled appearance. He considers his options for a few seconds. The way he see's it, he can try and talk her into coming down, or he can grab her, and force her to come down. The second option seems a little dangerous. One wrong move and she would fall to her death. Slowly he reaches his hand towards her, thinking maybe she won't notice.

"I said stay back!" she snaps. "Don't you dare fucking touch me, or I'll let go! I mean it!"

Joey quickly raises his hands, defensively. "Alright, alright..I'm not gonna touch you, see? We're good. But uhm...how about coming down from there?"

"Look, man, I'm gonna jump whether you're standing here or not. So if you don't  
want to be traumatized for the rest of your life, I suggest you move the hell on!"

Joey glances down, over the rail at the water below him. Being a little afraid of heights himself, he can't imagine what it would be like to fall down there from this distance. Knowing that forcing the girl to come down is no longer an option, he decides his best bet is to keep talking to her. "Don't you think it'll hurt?" he asks.

"No! I won't feel a thing! I'll be dead as soon as I hit the water. Listen, I've been planning this all day, and I'm not about to let you stop me! Now get out of here! I'm not gonna tell you again!"

He looks up at her. "You sure about that?"

"Yes I'm sure! What, you think I won't do it!? I will! I'm not kidding!"

"I didn't mean that." Joey tells her. "I meant what you said about you not feeling a thing when you hit the water. I'm no expert or nothing, but I did take a pretty hard hit playing football last summer. Not only did I get a concussion, but I snapped my collar bone in two. Even though it knocked the daylights out of me, I felt everything. At least for a few seconds, even after I blacked out. I don't think there's such thing as not feeling anything when you take a hit like that."

The girl gives a sarcastic laugh. "Gee, that's lovely story, but I think I'm gonna kill myself now, if you don't mind."

She shifts her feet, and for a second he thinks she's actually about to do it. He quickly leans forward, putting his hand out, just in case he needs to catch her.

"No, no! Wait! L-look...why do you wanna kill yourself anyways?"

"Why do you care?" she asks. "You don't even know me."

"I'd care if you died."

She laughs again, shaking her head. "No you wouldn't."

"I would." he insists.

"People like you don't care about people like me! Not when I'm sitting in the streets anyways. You just walk on past like you don't even see me. So why do you care now?"

"Hey, woah.." Joey says, feeling a little insulted by her claim. "Who says I'd just walk on by? You think I'd be able to walk past a girl as pretty as you and not notice?"

She rolls her eyes. "I know what you're trying to do, and it's not going to work.."

"All I'm trying to do," he says. "Is figure out why a smart, pretty girl like you would wanna do something stupid like this?"

"Why not!?" she snaps, her voice rising. "My mom did it! My roommate did it, and now I don't have a friend left in the world, so I'm going to do it!"

Joey falls silent, starting down at the water below them again, for a moment, trying to think of something to say. He raises his head and looks at her.

"I'll be your friend."

Another laugh escapes her throat.

Joey shrugs. "Why's that so funny?"

"Because! As soon as I step down from here..which I'm NOT going to do, by the way! You're not going to want anything to do with me! Face it, you wouldn't want to be seen in public with someone like me. I know how boys like you are!"

This time, Joey is the one who laughs. "Boys like me? What do you mean by that?"

"Yeah." she replies. "Jocks. Morons, all of you! All you care about is your giant egos, and your fancy sports cars and-!"

"Woah, woah, woah.." Joey interupts her, genuinley offended. "What is up with you? A minute ago, you accuse ME of being judgemental. What about you, huh? You don't know a thing about me, and you're calling me a moron? How do you even know I'm a jock?"

"Oh gee, let me think.. maybe because you're wearing one of those stupid jock jackets? Or the fact that you just told me you play football!" she says, in a mocking tone.

Joey pauses for moment, unable to come up with a good argument to defend himself. With a shrug, he unzips his jacket. "Alright.." He pulls it off and tosses it down. "Happy now?"

The girl watches him, curiously from the corner of her eye. She still doesn't budge from where she's standing. But Joey is about 90% postive that she isn't going to jump in front of him, like she threatened, earlier. It's only a matter of talking her down, at this point, which hasn't proven to be an easy task so far. She's much more stubborn than he thought. He has one idea left up his sleeve. He places his hands on the rail she's standing on, and lifts himself up. Holding onto the same lamp post she's holding for support, he stands upright on the railing.

"Hey! What're you, crazy!? You're gonna get yourself killed!"

Joey laughed. "And you're not?" He hooks one arm tightly around the post, securing himself.

"I don't care! That's the difference between you and me!"

He holds his free hand out to her. "Come on," he says. "Just give me your hand.. You hungry? I know a great pizza place on the other side of this bridge. My treat. Whaddaya say?"

She looks at him, glaring furiously. "I am in the middle of commiting suicide! I am jumping off this bridge!" she yells.

Joey shrugs. "Well, then.. you leave me no choice."

She lets out a startled scream, nearly losing her balance, when he grabs her hand that's on the post. He holds it as tight as he can. The lamp post is now on front of their hands and the only way she's going to fall is if she manages to get her hand free from his.

"Let go of me!" she shrieks at him.

"No can do," he says. "You're wanna jump from here? Fine. But you're gonna have to take me with you. That's the deal. You don't wanna live with that, do you?"

She stops struggling to get away and glares at him. "I'll be dead, what do I care?"

Joey considers her point and nods. "Alright..but I doubt you'll go to heaven for doing something like that!"

"I don't believe in heaven, I believe in re-encarnation!" she tells him.

"Well.." Joey opens his mouth to reply and pauses, running out of ideas on what to sayto her. He gives an exhasperated sigh. "Look, just step down with me. Please? You don't have to do this. I know whatever's going on seems bad now, but trust me,  
you have so much to live for."

"How would you know?" she asks in an unconvinced tone.

He gives a shrug. "Well..I just know that if you were meant to fall off this bridge tonight, I wouldn't be on here with you right now, trying to stop you. It's like my mom always says..everything happens for a reason."

To his surprise, she looks at him and falls silent, considering his words. "My mom use to say that, too. That's...kinda freaky, actually...I almost feel like she's here right now."

Joey nods. "I'd say someone out there is looking out for you. Why else would I have seen that guitar case when I did? Look.. I might just be some moron jock to you, but..obviously you need some help right now. And I wanna help you. Please?"

The girl gazes down at the water below them, that Joey is specifically trying to avoid looking at right now. If it suddenly hits him how high up he is right now, he might panic. She stares for a moment, contemplating long enough to make him worry that she might actually do it, and take him with her. then she looks over at him. She slowly lowers herself down, bringing her free hand onto the rail, and Joey does the same. He finally releases her hand when both of them have their feet on the ground. They look at each other, neither knowing what to say at first.

"I'm Joey." he tells her, offering his opposite hand. She looks at it, hesitantly, and then takes it.

"Phoebe" she tells him.

He shakes her hand. "Nice to meet you, Phoebe."

He picks up his jacket off the ground, and notices that her clothes are soaked right through. "You must be cold.." he says.

She crosses her arms, and shakes her head. "Nah. I'm used to it."

Without warning Joey takes his jacket and drapes his jacket over her shoulders.

"Oh.." she says, taken back with surprise by this gesture. She looks at him, uncertainly for a moment, in a way that gives Joey the feeling that he might be the first person to offer her a jacket, or even consider that she might be cold.

"What's the matter?" he asks. "You too good to wear a stupid jock jacket?"

"N-no! I just.."

Joey smiles to let her know he was just teasing her. And she smiles back. It's the first time he's seen her smile, and he has to admit to himself, it's quite a nice one. It makes her look so pretty. Especially since most homeless people he's met having rotting or missing teeth. He nudges her in a playful way, and places his hand on her shoulder. "Come on. I don't know about you, but I could sure go for some pizza right now. All this commotion's made me hungry." he says. He picks up her guitar case, and hands it to her. "And maybe you can tell me a little more about yourself?"

She takes the case from him, and they start walking towards the other side of the bridge. She seems a little stand-offish at first. He can tell that it's been a while since she's interacted with other people much.

"What do you wanna know?" she asks. Eventually, he'd like to know her whole story. How she came to end up on the streets, and more importantly, what brought her to this bridge tonight with the intention of ending her life. But he decides he should start off with some small talk, to keep her comfortable.

He motions to her guitar case. "Well, what about this? You play that thing, or what?"

"Yeah.." she tells him. "I write my own songs, too."

"Yeah? That's cool." he says. "What else do you like to do?"

She thinks about it for a moment. "Sometimes, I like to buy cat food for all the strays that live on my street."

"Wow," he says. "That's really nice of you."

"Uh-huh. There are a lot of them."

He listens, with genuine interest as she tells him more about the cats. How she has names for each of them. This is a good start, and he's glad that she trusts him enough to share small details of her life with him. Despite her tough exterior,Joey can tell that there is a lot more to this girl than most people would care to see. The more he listens to Phoebe talk, the more he sees her as a person. He can see that she's clever, and funny, and kind-hearted. He feels a warm sense of accomplishment, in knowing that he's done something great tonight. Not just by helping some strange homeless girl. It's not even about how he saved her life tonight. It's about how he's making a new friend. And what makes him feel really good is knowing that he gave her a chance, when no one else would. He already has a feeling that this is going to be the start of something great for both of them. He finds it hard to believe that moments ago, she was about to jump off of that bridge. He's glad that she didn't. Otherwise, he never would have had this opportunity to get to know her.


End file.
